Community Blog

Social media is a hot topic in the multi-family industry today.  We all know that our residents and prospects are avid users of social media, but we still don’t know what it means in terms of real impact to our business.  Is social media a marketing platform?  Does social media marketing connect with our other Internet marketing strategies?

To help frame the discussion and to point to some of the answers, we commissioned a White Paper to examine the impact of social media in our industry.

The author of the paper is Josh Gordon, a noted social media industry expert.  You can learn more about Josh at his web site, Selling2.0, and can see some of his other work at the site Social Media Today.  (Josh recently authored a white paper on the business applications of social media.)

Using proprietary research, Josh identifies 12 key findings about social media in the multi-family industry.  We think you’ll find them interesting and educating.

You can download the paper here:  At the Tipping Point: Social Media in the Multi-Family Industry.

Welcome to CommunitySherpa, a new Internet marketing service for the multi-family industry from Network Communications, Inc., the parent company of Apartment Finder.

CommunitySherpa provides a turn key solution to building and managing a social media marketing program for apartment communities, residents and prospects. CommunitySherpa takes the risk and complexity out of social media marketing, creating a new kind of Internet Marketing presence for your property management company. We will improve your visibility on Google, increase your web traffic, enhance your resident retention and turbo-charge your referral programs.

The explosion of social media tools and networks, like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, create a unique opportunity for apartment communities to get active on the web, by providing interesting content relevant to their residents and getting involved in the fabric of their residents’ lives, creating an active and engaged online community.

Apartment Finder and Network Communications recognize the incredible potential of social media marketing to improve your bottom line.  We also recognize the challenges that social media marketing present.

CommunitySherpa is a monthly subscription service that provides a turn-key solution to create active, engaged and effective virtual networks for your community.

Apartment Finder brings its unique skills in content development and management, as well as its knowledge of social media networks to the creation of CommunitySherpa.

Apartment Finder is social-media certified. Every member of the Apartment Finder team has gone through a detailed month-long training program with Domus Consulting to educate them about the power of social media networks and to give them insight and experience in developing effective and influential networks.

To learn more about this powerful service, please visit the following links:

The CommunitySherpa Customer Experience: What to Expect

CommunitySherpa: What You Get

What does the name CommunitySherpa mean?

12 Keys to Using Social Media to Improve Marketing in the Multi-Family Industry: A White Paper

CommunitySherpa: Getting Started

About Apartment Finder and Network Communications, Inc.

Social Media and the Multi-Family Industry: Some Starting Points

About Social Media Marketing: The CommunitySherpa Perspective

Gentlemen, I know you’ve got things like football on your mind.  But listen to me well:  You do not want to wait until Saturday to shop for your significant other.  It’s going to be a madhouse, because most guys will forget and be desperate to find something before Sunday.  Like Black Friday after Thanksgiving, but for men.  Not a pretty sight.

So here are a few suggestions for you. Burberry for upscale clothing and gifts.  One Park Place for personalized gifts.  The Bonanza General Store, the self-proclaimed World’s Largest Gift Store.  And, Vosges Haut-Chocolat, because if all else fails, chocolate remains the way to a woman’s heart.

	Burberry The Shoppes at The Palazzo 3325 Las Vegas Blvd South (702) 382-1911
	One Park Place 3053 West Craig Rd. Suite E-157 (702) 540-5586
	Bonanza General Store 2400 Las Vegas Blvd South (702) 384-0005
	Vosges Haut-Chocolat Forum Shops at Caesars 3500 Las Vegas Blvd South (702) 836-9866

Good luck with your shopping.  And if you’ve got some good suggestions for last minute shoppers, men or women, do share.  Everyone can use a little help when it comes to Valentines day.  Leave us a comment and tell us what you think!

St. Andrews luxury apartment homes is located in Augusta, Georgia and offers all the charm of a countryside estate – well within reach of the city. Elegant interiors. Uncompromising quality. Luxurious amenities. Set in a convenient neighborhood offering a tranquil setting.

Whether you prefer relaxing by the pool or enjoying a strenuous workout in our state of the art fitness center, St. Andrews offers a range of wonderfully equipped amenities set amid a pristine wooded countryside.

St. Andrews invites you to check out their new blog , become a Fan on Facebook and Follow them on Twitter.

At CommunitySherpa we have a highly developed perspective on the role of social media in the marketing chain.

We believe that the core of a powerful social media program is Content. The development of targeted content that is consistent with your Brand Story, which is distributed through social media platforms that align with your customers and prospects preferences, will generate measurable results in your business performance.

Social media marketing requires expertise and management, and at CommunitySherpa our mission is to do the heavy lifting associated with building content and managing communities. This work doesn’t remove your marketing team from the process: it enhances your resources and focuses your team on the work of identifying and engaging high-quality prospects and your existing customers.

Our Chairman & CEO, Dan McCarthy, has been an early adopter of social media in marketing. In his personal blog, ViralHousingFix, Dan has shared many of his observations about the application of social media to marketing and has articulated some foundation principles.

To better understand our approach to social media marketing and to gain additional perspective, you may want to read the following of Dan’s posts:

Migrating a brand strategy from marketing to content: A case study

My two principals of social media marketing

Online content isn’t just consumed…it can be transformed

An organizational shift to social media: Project Massive Network

Social media can be a marketing platform: It starts with brand evangelism

CommunitySherpa is a service of Network Communications, Inc., the publisher of Apartment Finder.

To learn more about Network Communications, Inc. (NCI), click on this link: www.nci.com.

For a quick summary, here is the boilerplate from our press releases:

Network Communications, Inc. is the leading publisher of printed and online real estate information in North America. The company was acquired by Court Square Capital Partners in January of 2005. Its magazines are read by over 12 million readers in over 500 markets and deliver more than one million leads to advertisers each month. Network Communications’ assets, The Real Estate Book, Apartment Finder / Blue Book, Mature Living Choices, Black’s Guide, New Home Finder, Unique Homes, Kansas City Homes & Gardens, Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles, Atlanta Home Improvement, At Home In Arkansas, Relocating in Las Vegas, Colorado Homes & Lifestyles, St. Louis Homes & Lifestyles, Seattle Homes & Lifestyles, and Mountain Living, include publications that millions of readers around the country turn to when looking for the latest information about the real estate and home design markets.

In the past five years, Apartment Finder has expanded its presence in print and online. It is the preferred choice for consumers, as well as a key resource that thousands of advertisers rely on for the most qualified leads in the industry. In addition to Apartment Finder, Apartment Magazine and Apartment Blue Book publications, NCI operates ApartmentFinder.com, the #1 consumer-preferred website with state-of-the-art searching,  mapping and social media features for apartment renters.

In order to learn about the use of social media in the multi-family industry, here are some good starting points:

Information Resources

Multi-Family Insiders http://www.multifamilyinsiders.com/
Groundswell http://www.forrester.com/Groundswell/profile_tool.html
Forrester Research http://www.forrester.com

M Brewer group http://mbrewergroup.com/

NAA Blog http://www.naahq.org/blog/default.aspx

 

Early Adopters of Social Media Marketing

Urbane Apartments http://www.urbaneapts.com

Bell Partners http://www.facebook.com/pages/Greensboro-NC/Bell-Partners/6481169882

CommunitySherpa provides the following services for an affordable, fixed monthly fee:

Content Management

Hosting and maintenance of an individual blog for your community, or a network of blogs for the communities in your portfolio;

• Ongoing content creation and management
• Relevant local and lifestyle content targeted to your residents
• Community news and information
• Photographs of community events and residents
• Interactive content
• Information about special renewal and referral incentives
• Interactive Community bulletin board

Social Network Development Maintenance

• Creation of social identities for your community or portfolio on Facebook and Twitter
• Development and publishing of content for your social identities
• Recruiting and development of your social network connections among your residents and prospects
• Monitoring of your social network activity for problematic or sensitive issues and dialogue

Internet Tool Development Search Engine Optimization

• Periodic enhancement and upgrade of social media tools, such as blog platforms, interactive widgets, etc.
• Analysis and refinement of Search Engine Optimization performance of your Community blog in search engines such as Google in order to increase traffic and raise Community profile.

Reporting & Analytics

Monthly reporting and analysis will include:

• Measure how many members of your network interacted with your program
• Report on traffic and leads
• Measure referral activity
• Measure retention among residents who are network participants vs. non-participants.

What does the name CommunitySherpa mean?

Community is a familiar term in the multi-family industry: it most commonly refers to the investment-grade stock of buildings that are managed by property management companies and occupied by rental residents.

A community, of course, is much more. It is a group of people who have a set of common interests, common goals and common experiences. It is in communities that each of us can find our most enriching and rewarding experiences.

In the modern era, with the demands of work and family and the recourse of personal technology to find entertainment and distraction, our experience of community has changed, often to the detriment of deep and rich personal experiences.

The development of social media tools and platforms has given us an easy and exciting way to redefine how we connect to communities, bringing the power of connections back into our lives.

This evolution creates a new way for the multi-family industry to think about internet marketing. But it doesn’t come without its risks and challenges.

That is the relevance of the second part of our name: Sherpa.

The Sherpa are a traditionally Buddhist people of Tibetan descent who live in Nepal on the southern slops of the Himalaya Mountains.

Over time, the term Sherpa has become associated with certain men among these people who are employed as guides for mountaineering expeditions, particularly Mt. Everest. They are highly regarded as elite mountaineers and epxerts in their local terrain.

No one would think of scaling Mt. Everest without a Sherpa as their guide. The Sherpa will carry the heavy packs, guide the expedition around treacherous patches. The Sherpas ensure that the trip is safe and rewarding.

Here’s one traveler’s observations about the Sherpa:

The trail up here was frequented by a Yak herds and 100’s sherpa porters. These porters (man and women) carry 60-70 kilos on their backs for around 3500 rupees a week (30 quid). Their endurance and stamina is inspiring and they bring home what hard work really means. I can not thank them enough.

That is our goal with CommunitySherpa: to help you benefit from the impact of social media marketing while minimizing the discomfort and risk.

Getting started on CommunitySherpa is easy.

We offer three types of Client Engagement:

Community Program

Property-Management Company Program

Custom Program

Each program offers the development and execution of a full-service social media marketing program. The differences between the programs relate to the degree of customization and content-sharing that is available to multiple communities.

In addition, the per-community cost of maintaining and managing the CommunitySherpa program is lower on for the Property-Management and Custom programs.

Here are some details:

Community Program

The Single Community program with CommunitySherpa is available for any multi-family community, regardless of size or location. For a low set-up fee and fixed monthly maintenance fee, your community will get a turn key social media program.

As a single Community, you will be able to select from four pre-designed CommunitySherpa blog templates. The CommunitySherpa Operations team will custom design a header, a “Living at Your Community” marketing page and a “About Your Community” web page as part of your basic package. (You have the option of providing your own pre-designed pages, if you desire.) You will receive the base functionality for your Blog platform, including a Community Bulletin board, Photo Gallery and Interactive polls.

Upon completion of your initial Account interview, you will receive a customized social media marketing program for your community.

Pricing:

The monthly maintenance fee for the Community Program is $350 per month.  The set up fee is $499.

The base program lasts for 1 year. The maintenance fee is paid monthly; the set-up fee is billed upon receipt of your contract.

Property-Management Company Program

The Property-Management Company program is available for a minimum of 25 community installations.

With the Property-Management program, you are able to customize the basic template and design of your Community Blogs to conform to your company branding guidelines. In addition, each Community Blog will have a custom-designed header, a “Living at Your Community” marketing page and an “About Your Community” web page.  (You have the option of providing these components yourself, if you desire.)

As a Company client, you will have the opportunity to customize the functionality of your blog. Your Account Manager will detail the various functions that can be added into your blog, including interactivity with your residents, enhanced photo galleries, integration with your social network platforms and video.

As a Company client, you will have a central marketing resource at your company who will be the key point of contact for developing the Social Media Marketing plan. In addition, you will appoint a contact person at each Community who will interact with the CommunitySherpa Operations team on a weekly basis in order to supply key content and handle engagement with the users of your program. Each month the central marketing contact at the Company will receive a report detailing the performance of the program.

Pricing:

The maintenance fee for a Company installation with 10 to 24 communities is $300 per month per community.  For a company installation with 25 properties or more, the maintenance fee is $250 per month per community.  The set-up fee for each community is $499.

The program lasts for 1 year. The maintenance fee is paid monthly. 50% of the set-up fee is billed upon receipt of your contract; the remaining 50% is billed after 30 days.

Custom Program

The Custom CommunitySherpa program allows for the maximum amount of customization for your social media marketing program.

After an initial marketing strategy consultation, the CommunitySherpa Social Marketing team will develop a proposal for your company’s social media marketing presence.

With this program, you will be able to fully customize the look and functionality of each individual Community blog and social networking identities. You will have the ability to create a custom social network for your entire portfolio or different sub-segments of your portfolio.

The minimum commitment of Communities for a custom program is 25.

Pricing will be developed upon request.

For more information, contact:

Judy Bellack
Executive Director, CommunitySherpa
561-487-1455
jbellack@apartmentfinder.com

Note:  Pricing is subject to change at any time.  All clients will be protected with their pricing structure for 1 year from the date of any pricing changed, subject to continuation of a signed contract.

When you become a client of CommunitySherpa, whether with one community or an entire portfolio, you will benefit from the expertise and focus of an experienced team of account management, customer service, content management and social media implementation professionals.

Your primary point of contact will be your CommunitySherpa Account Manager.

The Account Manager will be intimately involved in the creation and implementation of your social media marketing campaign. From working with you to develop your community blog’s look and feel, to pinpointing the right kind of content to drive your content marketing strategy, to coordinating the introduction and creation of your social networking presence, your Account Manager will ensure that you don’t have to sweat the small details and will be able to focus on the important issues of managing your community and your overall marketing plan.

Supporting your account manager and managing the daily tasks associated with your CommunitySherpa account is an experienced team made up of Social Media Coordinators, Content Managers, Social Network Managers, Search Engine Optimization Specialists, Web Developers and Web Designers.

These individuals are members of the DigitalSherpa Operations team, headquartered at NCI’s operations center in Lawrenceville, GA. As a CommunitySherpa client, you benefit from the experience and expertise of a team that has worked on developing Internet marketing solutions for thousands of companies in the multi-family, real estate and remodeling industries.

The CommunitySherpa Customer Service Promise

We understand that our customers have busy and demanding professional lives. We also understand that a key to the success of a social media marketing program is engagement, focus and conversation.

Our promise to every customer is that we will make the process of managing a social media marketing campaign as painless and simple as possible.

To help accomplish this, we have a Customer Service Communications Program that helps you stay on top of the important details related to your account.

The program includes:

Weekly social marketing tips;

Weekly Content idea sheets, complete with reminders to update important Community information, such as events or maintenance schedules.

On-Demand Conversation Alerts, which are sent to the Community contact whenever a question or sensitive topic is tracked on your Community blog or within your Community Social Network.

Monthly Marketing Consultations, which include a review of your CommunitySherpa activity, including leads generated for your Community, and a fine-tuning of the different elements of your Social Media Marketing Program.

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